Home Nations Para Scottish Championships

Badminton Ulster had a good weekend with important benchmark results on the road towards Paralympic qualification starting in March.

Both Ulster/Irish Para Players Michael Smith and Niall Jarvie travelled to compete in the Home Nations event and put in very creditable performances.

Michael Smith was competing in WH Men’s singles winning both his matches to claim Gold in the Men’s event beating Duncan Taylor from Scotland 21-11- and 21-14 and then England’s Hayden Jackson 21-10 and 21-17. He then paired up with Scotland’s Fiona Christie to clinch the doubles title winning all of their matches. This was Michaels first competitive outing since the Irish Para International having been working hard to recover from an injury that had limited his chair movements and hitting action.

Niall Jarvie a former Scottish Para Internationalist but living in Northern Ireland from 2014 and declaring for Ireland for the coming season returned to his native country having had a period out to build towards reclimbing the Para rankings. It turned out to be a successful event as he reached the SL3 Men’s Singles final only to lose out to Scottish Para Internationalist World Ranked number 20 Colin Leslie 21-7 21-13 a difficult encounter but the final providing much needed international match play for the qualifying period ahead towards both the World and Paralympic Championships.

Well done Michael and Niall keep up the good work!